Vol.2: Raid of the Nexus
Darkspore vol.2: Raid of the Nexus is the second installment in Matvakama's Story of Darkspore. It is preceded by Awakening and followed by Floating Isles. The story tells the first birthing moments of the Crogenitor Insurgency led by the newly awakened Crogenitor Cozem. He only has five genetically modified soldiers for battle, that he needs to keep alive in order to liberate the galaxy. Plot Cozem sits around on the bridge of the Starbird and lazily searches HELIX's database in hopes of finding data logs about the War with the Darkspore. HELIX tells him, that the database does not contain records of the Mutation Wars. Cozem frantically responds, that he has 'to know how and why did the Crogenitor Empire fall into ruin. HELIX is however silent, but reports, that the network's synchronizing process is nearly completed, so Cozem would eventually find and gather the rest of the Crogenitors, who are currently hidden in stasis. The Crogenitor grows more and more impatient as the ship hasn't even started the jump into hyperspace. He angrily goes to the engine deck to see how the progress goes. Inside, he sees Goliath trying to repair the Hyperdrive engine. The Cyber Sentinel says it's near impossible for him to fix the engine as he doesn't have schematics for such machinery. Cozem, disappointed by the news, goes back to the bridge. When Cozem is finally tired of sitting around doing nothing, he decides to check the Galactic Map, just for the sake of doing something. He tries to pick a planet, that would be a fitting start for his liberation campaign and after a while he picks Zelem's Nexus as his first destination. He then goes to the lab, wanting to "tune-up" something. After some time of welding, cutting, constructing and taking apart things, Cozem remakes his staff into a weapon. He decides to try it out in the Simulation Chamber, but finds it occupied by Wraith. After walking up to the Navigation Deck, he is met by Sage. The Crogenitor asks if Sage has a shooting range, to which the Life Forester answers positively. Determined to test his weapon, Cozem goes to Sage's shooting range, which was actually hidden beneath the Simulation Chamber. At the range, he first tests his weapon and the recoil blasts him all the way back to the door. Cozem lowers the power of the scepter and it handles a lot better. He shoots several times and decides to train a bit with his new weapon. HELIX quickly interrupts saying something has happened in the engine deck. Cozem and Sage are up and running to find Goliath cutting the Hyperdrive apart with his lightsaber! The Crogenitor instantly demands answers, but Goliath ignores them, lifts and puts on the floor a giant piece of the Hyperdrive's casing. He proudly answers he found the source of the hyperdrive's malfunction: a few pieces were rusty and were welded in place by the temperature. These parts needed to be replaced. Cozem asks HELIX, if they have reserve parts for the Hyperdrive. The AI responds by actually delivering the parts straight to the engine deck. There, Goliath and Cozem work together to replace the mechanisms and in the end, Goliath welds back the casing of the hyperdrive engine. Cozem goes back to the bridge to check the ship's systems. He locks on to the coordinates of Zelem's Nexus and fires up the Hyperdrive. Meanwhile, HELIX provides intel about Zelem's Nexus: information, events and the Darkspore residing there. Soon after, they arrive at their destination. Cozem looks upon the glorious feat of engineering and wonders what will happen when they set foot on the Nexus. Characters ''(Numbers indicate order of appearance.) Genetic Heroes Goliath (3), Wraith (4), Sage (5) Darkspore appeared Other Cozem (1), HELIX (2), Zelem (6) (record) Quotes : "I've been sitting here for hours trying to find even a tiny '''mention of the course of the War, but there's NOTHING HERE!!! 'HELIX!" : ''"Yes, Cozem?" : "Why is there not even a simple log about the War?" : "It is so because my database aboard the Starbird possesses no records of the Mutation Wars. Synchronization of the HELIX network is far too risky to be undertaken." : "Why is it?" : "Because during the E-DNA stabilization research, the network suffered massive informatic damage from the Darkspore. Not all divisions of the network are functional." : "Listen HELIX, I '''must know how and why the Crogenitor Empire fell! My brethren perished during that war and I don't even know how many of my kind remain alive! I'm desperate! You have to synchronize the AI network, otherwise there will be no communication between the Starbird and other Crogenitor vessels." : "Understood. Initiating network synchronization." :: - Cozem rages about his lack of information. : "Initial destination: Zelem's Nexus. Perched on the edge of a black hole, these islands are all that remain of the planet Nakto. Known as Zelem's Nexus, this is the home of Quantumgenesis. It was here Crogenitor Zelem made his life's work, piecing back together the fragments of Nakto to study in light of the black hole. Zelem was assisted only by machines and carefully selected Genetic Heroes. In this oasis of solitude, the Darkspore, long warned agaisnt, first appeared en masse, the Crogenitors' greatest fear. It went unnoticed at the time, but the attack would later be called "the Nexus Massacre". The fragmented islands in the Nexus are overrun by Quantumgenetic Darkspore. They specialise in teleportation and the manipulation of time and space." :: - HELIX's intel about Zelem's Nexus. Trivia *This issue follows the storyline of Awakening and is suceeded by Vol.3: Floating Isles. *HELIX mentions cybernetic attacks on the network by the Darkspore during the E-DNA stabilization research. This is actually true, as HELIX was assigned the task of stabilizing E-DNA, before it could mutate into the Darkspore Virus. During that, she was shut down multiple times by Darkspore attacks and, when she was nearing completion, the Darkspore managed to crack the AI Network's firewalls, successfully halting progress on the research. *It is revealed, that the Starbird is big enough to be able to hold an entire army. *It also appears that the HELIX network has several "divisions" all synced up and decentralized, so that if one division goes down, its work would be preserved in another one. This did not technically work out as several of these divisions were destroyed by the Darkspore. One among them was the database containing a complete list of Darkspore Mutants and the database storing records of the Mutation Wars. It is also noted, that HELIX is trying to "regain" these divisions. Category:Darkspore Category:Story of Darkspore Category:Fiction Writing